Lower gear ratio ?

[firemedic355]

Ok, so I've been wanting to either swap my axles out or re-gear them for a while now due to by lovely 15MPG average(or less). Being that I have an early 99 duelly the rear axle is a horse (a Sterling I think), and the front is of course the Dana 80. Any tech suggestions, links to forums, or good gear shops to point me towards so I can get down to about a 3.73'ish ratio instead of the 4.?? whatever I have now? As always I'm on a shoestring military budget, so I'd like to get it done on the cheap, but know I'm looking at at least $1,500 with parts and labor. Any help is appreciated.

[sevenmalards]

Originally Posted by firemedic355

Ok, so I've been wanting to either swap my axles out or re-gear them for a while now due to by lovely 15MPG average(or less). Being that I have an early 99 duelly the rear axle is a horse (a Sterling I think), and the front is of course the Dana 80. Any tech suggestions, links to forums, or good gear shops to point me towards so I can get down to about a 3.73'ish ratio instead of the 4.?? whatever I have now? As always I'm on a shoestring military budget, so I'd like to get it done on the cheap, but know I'm looking at at least $1,500 with parts and labor. Any help is appreciated.

I just talked to a friend of mine who has a 01 dually 4X4 with 4.10's (same as my 2wd dually) and he is getting better mileage than with his F250 4X4 with the 3.73's. He pulls a horse trailer and with the 3.73's he was always towing without OD, and with the 4.10's he can pull in OD.
IMO, and his, you will never be able to recover the $$$ you put into the gear swap at the pump

[sirnunya]

you don't have a dana 80 front...you might have a dana 60 though. I'm pretty sure since its a dually, the rear is a dana 80. probably 4.10's, so 3.73's isn't much of a change, not really cost effective in my opinion. $1500 is about right, maybe closer to $2000. A different chip like dp tuner, or tony wildman might net more mpg on the econo tunes. 2-4 times cheaper than a gear swap. Plus if you ever want to load that dually up like its meant, you'll be happier with the stock gearing. Get some bigger tires to run lower rpms on the highway.

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Last edited by sirnunya : 05-25-2008 at 04:38 PM.

[sevenmalards]

Originally Posted by sirnunya

A different chip like dp tuner, or tony wildman might net more mpg on the econo tunes. 2-4 times cheaper than a gear swap. Plus if you ever want to load that dually up like its meant, you'll be happier with the stock gearing. Get some bigger tires to run lower rpms on the highway.

My friend who has the 4X dually gets upper 18mph and he gets what I get empty, pulling his horse trailer!
The difference is I used to run and Edge Evo (until it killed my tranny) and now I'm running just bone stock. He is running a pretty good programmer so I think that is the difference because everything else we have is the same, ans as a 4X4 he should get worse mileage than me, not better.
I'm getting ready to buy a TW from Raul at Stealth, then I'll be excited to see how my mileage improves!

[mrnecsteve]

Its pricier than you want....but an OVERdrive unit is about 3,000 and I suspect it would increase resale should that ever come....
Overdrive for Ford E4OD & 4R100 4 speed automatics Save Money!

ps. I DO NOT have experience with one...research carefully